Measures of Time
by aaincognito
Summary: [InuKai] [COMPLETE] A datagathering mission requires some special precautionary tacticsbut Inui was prepared to take those measures. He just wasn't prepared for someone else to stumble across him.
1. 1

Title: Measures of Time: Chapter 1 of 2-3ish   
Author: A. A. Incognito   
Pairing: InuKai   
Warnings: shounen ai   
Rating: PG   
Note: TIMELINE: They're in high school now--yes, miraculously they all went to Seishun Gakuen High School. It is a fictional world, I can make things be incredibly illogical if I The third years are juniors in high school, second years sophomores, etc.   
IMPORTANT AU NOTE: Fudomine does not have a high school affiliated with it, but I didn't know that at the time I was writing, so that bit is AU.   
Summary: A data-gathering mission requires some special precautionary tactics--but Inui was prepared to take those measures. He just wasn't prepared for someone else to stumble across him.

I have hate for ffnet. **Whenever you see a random number, there SHOULD be a percentage sign after it.** But there isn't, because ffnet is retarded like that.

**Measures of Time   
Chapter 1**

Drastic times called for drastic measures, he reminded himself. His hair dripped onto the collar of the shirt he was wearing. Drastic measures. Like finding the contacts he'd gotten months ago and worn once, preventing his hair from being its normal spiky mess, and temporarily borrowing some of Tezuka's clothes.

This was why, Inui reasoned, becoming friendly with other teams was bad. It was much harder to spy on them when they'd spot him, walk over, and strike up a conversation. Or stop any serious practice until after he'd left, because there weren't any good hiding places around Fudomine's practice courts.

Drastic times. Drastic measures.

There was still an eight percent chance that one of them would recognize him and blow his cover. Eighteen percent if Tachibana's sister was there--she seemed to have the uncanny ability to see the truth in whatever was going on around her.

He looked at himself in the mirror and grimaced, making a mental note to give Seigaku as wide a berth as possible on his way to Fudomine. He knew Tezuka, Fuji, and Oishi would recognize him immediately--Eiji wouldn't be far behind. And Eiji would never let him live it down. Ever. And the probability of Fuji having a camera on him and using it was much too high for comfort.

But to the average person who had only ever seen him with his glasses on, the disguise was a good one, even if it left him feeling rather naked. It was for the sake of the team. It was rumored that Fudomine had an up-and-coming freshman prodigy (they seemed to be cropping up everywhere nowadays) who he had absolutely no data on. No data was unacceptable. Drastic times.

He gathered his backpack and his Fudomine notebook--which he wasn't sure he'd be able to use right at the courts, but he knew he would remember the most important things long enough to write them down once he was a safe distance away. No one was home besides him, as usual, so he didn't feel overly conspicuous about scaling the wall that enclosed the apartment complex so no one would see him go out the front.

The walk to Fudomine's courts was surprisingly uneventful, except for a peculiar increase in the length of time passing females glanced at him. Curious.

As he'd predicted, Fudomine was out practicing, and it was easy to spot the one unfamiliar face playing with the regulars. Ibu and Kamio were doing some sort of drill with him that involved a lot of running and switching sides of the court. The rhythm player looked like he'd been lounging around, but the freshman was panting like a dog in the heat of summer. There were a few other people scattered about watching the courts, so Inui drifted toward where three of them had gathered, as close to the freshman as he dared to get. One of the girls turned to him and smiled, then politely asked where he was from.

Just to be safe, he named one of the other local high schools, well aware that he could pass as college-aged when the mood struck him--but there wasn't really a purpose in going that far, and it could lead to unnecessary complications. For some reason she took his two-word answer as an invitation to make small talk, but he was accustomed to tuning out Horio, so she didn't stand a chance. At some point she got the hint, and he went back to observing the freshman in relative peace.

The boy had a lot of potential, that was for sure. Despite his obvious exhaustion, he could almost keep up with Kamio as they dashed from one side of the court to the other. His shots lacked finesse and planning, though--hitting a hard cross court shot wasn't wise when you were expected to be on that side to return the return of your own shot. His ball control could use quite a bit of polishing as well, Inui noted as he watched the kid's next shot sail out of bounds.

He slipped away near the end of practice, jogging quickly to the nearby park, where he sat down on a bench and set about to recording every detail he could remember in the pages of his notebook. The first tier of analysis was already coming to him and when he next looked up, at least one and a half hours had passed. Then he saw what had subconsciously roused him from his calculations.

"S-senpai?"

Interesting. Inui had never experienced the intense desire to go crawl in a hole and hide before, as he was not easily embarrassed. He hadn't failed to take into account that this was the park Kaidoh regularly used for his training, but he _had_ completely lost track of time--and the area was utterly devoid of human-sized holes. Pity.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Opened... closed. Calculated the probability of a hole spontaneously appearing in the near vicinity. Not good.

This _was_ Kaidoh, though. He was trustworthy--and obedient. At least to Inui, which was all that mattered at the moment. With as much nonchalance as he could muster while feeling so exposed, he tucked his notebook away and stood up, taking a little comfort in the fact that the younger boy was still four centimeters shorter than he was.

"Are you almost done with your run?" he asked blandly, catching himself as his hand rose automatically to push his currently absent glasses up.

"A-aa."

"Good. Come with me." He set out at a brisk pace, not even glancing back to see if Kaidoh was following. The odds were in his favor that Kaidoh wouldn't mention anything about seeing him like this, but a little extra incentive in the form of the latest batch of juice chilling in his refrigerator wouldn't hurt. This formula was an electric purple color of which that he was particularly proud.

But it would be impolite to make Kaidoh go all the way to his house just to surreptitiously threaten him. Hmmm. Ah, the modified menu he'd just finished that morning would be a good excuse.

After several minutes, Kaidoh spoke again. "Senpai?" The younger boy was no longer stuttering, which meant (90 chance) he'd gotten over his initial surprise.

"Yes?"

"Why--what--"

"In a minute, Kaidoh."

Keeping himself constantly on the alert for any more errant teammates, he ushered Kaidoh in the front door of the building and closed it behind them, then went up the stairs to the top floor. No shoes in the entryway of the apartment, which meant no parents. Good. He tossed the notebook onto the kitchen table, then ruffled his hair vigorously to return it to its usual state. Much better. "Can I get you anything?" he asked politely and gestured to the kitchen. "Water, perhaps?"

Kaidoh was staring at him peculiarly. It was approximately 40 the look he got when he mentioned something about Kaidoh's training he shouldn't have known, 25 the look when Kaidoh was faced with a new Inui juice, and 35 percent... something else. His desire to determine what that stare meant was the only thing that prevented him from going upstairs to remove the contacts and put his glasses back on. "Kaidoh?"

"Ah--water, thank you." He seemed torn between staring at Inui and examining the floor. Time to implement the primary plan. Inui opened the refrigerator to ostensibly remove the pitcher of purified drinking water, which conveniently left the _other_ pitcher of neon purple liquid in plain view. Judging by Kaidoh's sudden intake of breath and the few shuffling steps the younger boy took away from the kitchen, it had been seen. Excellent.

"Please have a seat," Inui said, handing the glass of water to Kaidoh and gesturing with his other hand. "I'll be right back, there's something in my room that I need."

"Wait--"

Inui turned back curiously; this kind of behavior wasn't typical of Kaidoh. "Yes?"

The second year's gaze dropped back to the glass of water in his hand as soon as they made eye contact. "Nothing." Inui raised an eyebrow, but decided not to comment--the chances of revealing what Kaidoh had initially intended to say were miniscule. In his room, he found the stack of papers he wanted and began leafing through them, searching for the right draft. He couldn't help but look over to where his glasses lay on top of his dresser--but no, he hadn't found out what that _look_ had been... and he had a hunch that it had something to do with his abnormal appearance.

Kaidoh looked strangely relieved when he came back in, revised menu in hand. There was a sixty percent chance it was because he wasn't carrying any sort of liquid container, but the other 40 could have been a variety of variables.

"I finished modifying your current dietary menu this morning to reflect your need for an increased carbohydrate intake. There aren't any large changes, smaller ones are sufficient for the time being." When he handed the paper to Kaidoh, their fingers overlapped briefly and the younger boy pulled back as if he'd been shocked. Inui blinked wordlessly--something was definitely off about Kaidoh.

"Are you feeling all right?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm fine. Senpai, why..."

"Oh, I do owe you an explanation, don't I?" As if he'd forgotten. "I was investigating Fudomine's new freshman player, but they are all familiar with our team, so I could not go as I normally would." Without meaning to, he raised a hand to where his glasses should have been, but there was nothing to adjust.

Kaidoh's eyes followed his hand. "Oh." His grip on the glass had tightened by approximately 1.1 kilograms per square centimeter, judging by the whiteness of his knuckles. "Was he any good?"

"He might be something to worry about next year. For now, no. Are you sure you're all right?" Reaching forward, he tugged Kaidoh's bandana off and used the back of his hand to feel his forehead. Hm, approximately 36.6 degrees centigrade--normal for Kaidoh; but he was still unaccountably flushed. If his grip tightened any more on the glass it would break, and there was a 95 chance it would cut Kaidoh if that happened. Without a conscious decision, Inui reached out and removed it from Kaidoh's grasp, their fingers brushing for a second time. Kaidoh was staring at him again. Very strange behavior.

"I should go," the younger boy mumbled, standing abruptly. He folded the new menu into fourths and shoved it in his pocket. "Thank you for the menu," and now he wouldn't meet Inui's eyes at all as he turned and nearly ran for the door. Inui trailed after him at a slower pace, deep in thought. Research was absolutely necessary at this point; Kaidoh's behavior couldn't be without reason.

"See you tomorrow," Inui said as he reached the entryway; Kaidoh was already half out the door.

"See you." His eyes darted to Inui's face once more, and then he was gone.

Most peculiar, indeed. Inui went to his desk, rummaged around for a new notebook, and began to write.

end chapter 1.


	2. 2

**Any random numbers you see within the fic are supposed to have percentage signs after them.** FFnet just sucks.

Title: Measures of Time: Chapter 2 of 3  
Author: A. A. Incognito  
Pairing: InuKai  
Warnings: shounen ai  
Rating: PG  
Note: Timeline notes from first chapter still apply.  
Summary: Inui's first day of research, more picking on Tezuka, and guilt.

**Measures of Time  
Chapter 2**

Inui started his research the next morning at practice. He'd come slightly later than he usually did in order to avoid running into Kaidoh in the locker room -- his main objective today was to observe Kaidoh's behavior around people other than himself, and seeing Inui could skew the results if Kaidoh really did have an issue with him in particular.

Practice hadn't officially started yet, so almost everyone was gathered in their normal social groups, talking. Practices had been more relaxed of late, because they had just won the regional tournament rather decisively. Kaidoh was off to the side -- even after several years, he still wasn't associated with any particular group within the team. Of course, had it been a normal morning, Inui would have been standing with him, discussing training, the upcoming ranking matches, or something Kaidoh's brother had recently done.

But today he lurked around the edge of his fellow juniors, only half paying attention to Eiji's story about toothpaste and Oishi's fish. Arai had just approached Kaidoh; they did share a few classes this year, perhaps that was the topic of conversation? Or was Arai threatening Kaidoh's regular position? Most likely the former, as Kaidoh didn't appear angry or annoyed, just a little surprised.

Kaidoh said something, and Arai grinned and clapped him on the back before going back to his usual group of second years.

Arai, hm? Were he and Kaidoh friends and Inui just hadn't noticed it? Not impossible, but close to it. He was certain he wouldn't have missed such a relationship in Kaidoh's life.

Momoshiro was the next to interact with Kaidoh. It looked like -- yes, Momo was asking Kaidoh where Inui was. Interesting. He watched the exchange carefully over Fuji's shoulder; Kaidoh scowled at Momo and snapped something, Momo looked faintly shocked and began firing off more questions that Inui couldn't quite catch with his limited lip-reading abilities. There was a 70 chance that Kaidoh would end up punching him if no one interrupted them, and Inui started to step forward to do just that -- but no, that would interfere with his data collection. And Momo probably wouldn't punch back. Practice would be starting soon, as well.

Inui was so focused on Kaidoh he barely noticed Fuji turning to see what he was staring at.

"Is something going on with Kaidoh, Inui?" Fuji asked, turning back to look up at him.

"That's right, you normally talk with him in the mornings -- not that we don't like having you here," Oishi interjected with a slightly worried smile.

It looked like the two sophomores weren't going to go beyond their usual shirt-grabbing this morning, he noted with relief. It would have only gotten them laps, and after Kaidoh's run that morning, it would not be beneficial to him.

"Inui?" Fuji asked again.

"Ah, sorry, what did you say?"

Not good -- the expression on Fuji's face meant trouble 83 of the time. "I asked if something was going on with Kaidoh. Did you have a fight?"

"I'm not sure yet, and no." The less information Fuji had, the better.

"It's nothing serious, is it?" Oishi asked, throwing a concerned glance at the boy in question. "He never tells anyone if there's something wrong. Remember his ribs?"

Inui did, unfortunately. "It has nothing to do with a potential physical injury. I can't calculate the degree of severity right now, but I doubt it is anything dire."

"Let us know if there's anything we can do, nya?" Eiji piped up, slinging an arm around Oishi's shoulders. "Do you want to play a match with us?"

"Mm, not today. Tomorrow, perhaps, if I've obtained sufficient data." If there _was_ something wrong, a match with the Golden Pair would likely take Kaidoh's mind off of it, even if he was partnered with Inui. They'd been switching back and forth with the other pair in the doubles one and two spots for the last few months, which seemed to please Kaidoh. Not as much as staying at D1 would, but different opponents called for different strategies.

They had come quite a way to be able to consistently rival the Golden Pair's near-perfect coordination.

Conversation had drifted toward the upcoming inter-team ranking matches when Tezuka and Yamato-buchou finally emerged from Kurosaki-sensei's office, and practice began.

It wasn't as difficult as he had anticipated to keep an eye on Kaidoh during practice: they'd both been challenged by irritated fourth-year students still indignant about having their regular status revoked in favor of a wave of younger players.

Azuma-senpai's backhand was particularly weak when returning balls at the baseline, and he had a tendency to avoid closing in on the net. If Inui hit a deep shot to the backhand side, there was only a 60 chance he'd return it, and then it was child's play to hit a forehand drop shot near the net. His opponent had approximately a 2 chance of making it past the first three shots of the rally, disregarding the serve.

Kaidoh's opponent was of slightly higher caliber, but the Boomerang Snake never failed to phase any of his kouhai's opponents, young or old. He was playing normally enough -- his pace just a little faster than usual due to his lingering annoyance at Momoshiro. There would be no lasting consequences of such a minor variation. It was too bad, really. There was no challenge in such a match for Kaidoh, and without challenge the rate of his growth as a tennis player decreased exponentially. Inui tried -- and succeeded, 94 of the time -- to provide that challenge. Little else annoyed Kaidoh more than being predicted; it was a wonder in itself that he continued to associate with Inui. But his aspiration to become unpredictable at will had kept him coming back.

The more Inui thought about it, the less satisfactory their situation seemed. He frowned even as he hit the match-winning drop shot. This would not do at all. Perhaps it had just been Kaidoh's inherent politeness yesterday that had stopped him from... stopped him from what? This train of thought was illogical at best, too influenced by Inui's personal feelings. He shoved it into a tiny corner of his mind, not to be forgotten, but to wait until he was in a more objective frame of mind.

Azuma-senpai was waiting for him at the net and shook his hand grudgingly. Inui couldn't really blame the seniors for their annoyance, but being older did not necessarily imply that they were superior players. He hadn't even been on the regular team his first year -- there were too many singles players, and he had been reluctant to acquire a new doubles partner. Instead, he'd gathered notebooks upon notebooks of data, and put it to good use the next year when Kaidoh and Momoshiro rejoined their ranks. It had surprised him, how glad he was to have Kaidoh back.

Reasoning to himself that it wasn't really interacting, he walked around the courts until he reached the one where Kaidoh was playing to watch the rest of the match. It didn't take him long to end it, and he was just as standoffish as he normally was, though he did concede to shake his opponent's hand.

By the time morning practice was over, Inui had concluded that there had been no significant changes in Kaidoh's behavior toward other people. Which meant the phenomenon was limited to Inui himself. How troublesome.

During English, Inui composed a list of factors present the previous day that had varied significantly from their usual interactions. His appearance had obviously been the most noteworthy of changes, so he broke that variable into subsections. His hair -- but he had fixed that fairly early on, so its effect was negligible; Tezuka's shirt -- it _had_ been purple, but otherwise fairly typical; and the contacts -- that part must have been the most surprising to Kaidoh, even Inui thought he looked strange without his glasses.

...Really, anyone who customarily wore glasses looked odd without them. Would Kaidoh have the same reaction to another person he was familiar with without theirs?

Inui glanced over at Tezuka, who was paying flawless attention to the teacher, as always. Should he just 'borrow' them, or explain the situation and the hypothesis he wished to test? The odds were nearly overwhelmingly in favor of Tezuka denying the requested favor, or outright ignoring Inui entirely. Borrowing it was, then.

---

An opportunity presented itself at practice after school. Due to the unreasonable heat, Tezuka had taken his glasses off and left them on top of the fountain in order to splash his face with water. Inui walked past and casually reached out and dropped them in his pocket. Kaidoh was coming up the path a ways after Inui, pulling his bandana off as he went. Perfect. Inui quickly stepped back into the shadow of the clubhouse.

Tezuka finished drying his face just as Kaidoh rounded the corner. It would be impossible for Kaidoh to miss the absent glasses. The second year paused for 1.86 seconds as Tezuka swept his hands over the top of the fountain, searching. Other than that, no reaction whatsoever.

Hm. Disappointing.

He couldn't leave Tezuka blind, however, so as soon as Kaidoh had gone, he approached the fountain and crouched, removing the glasses from his pocket in the process. "Tezuka, perhaps you dropped these?" he said as he straightened, holding the glasses out.

Tezuka accepted them wordlessly and gave him a suspicious look that spoke volumes. Maybe he had noticed the missing shirt... No matter.

From today's research he could assume with 98 certainty that Kaidoh's odd behavior the previous day could be attributed solely to... himself. The next step would be to interact with Kaidoh as he usually did and see if his behavior continued to display abnormalities.

---

It was raining, a slow, steady downpour. Against probability, Inui's umbrella hadn't opened, so he was soaking wet by the time he got to Seigaku. There wouldn't be practice, that was for certain, but he went to the clubhouse anyway -- he had a dry shirt there for situations like this.

Kaidoh was there, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Inui hadn't expected that.

"Good morning," he said to mask his surprise.

"Morning," the sophomore replied tersely. "Don't you have an umbrella?" Classic Kaidoh concern if he'd ever heard it. It made him smile.

"I do, but it failed to open."

"Oh."

Inui stripped off his wet shirt and toweled his hair off. His glasses were dotted with raindrops as well, so he removed them after he put on the dry shirt. It was impossible not to notice the potential for research the current situation provided. He slowly rubbed his glasses with a corner of his shirt, thinking.

"Why are you here? Practice is always canceled when we have this sort of weather," he said eventually. He could have easily predicted the reason himself, but then he would have had to have come up with another ploy to get Kaidoh to look at him.

A sudden intake of breath just shy of a gasp was his reward. Quickly he put his glasses back on so he could see Kaidoh's face -- and yes, his cheeks held an unmistakable tinge of pink, just 10 away from their normal color.

"Momoshiro was annoying me." No stumbling over his words this time, so that must have been a unique reaction.

"Was he doing anything in particular?" Inui asked. A hiss was the only response he got, which meant there had been something specific, but the likelihood of finding out what it had been was seven percent at best. Not particularly encouraging odds.

"Senpai."

"Yes?"

"Why were you avoiding me yesterday?"

It was never "_were_ you" with Kaidoh. Once Kaidoh had decided something was true, dissuading him was a task of monumental difficulty. Inui had only succeeded five times in the past three and a half years.

"I apologize. I had some research to conduct." Kaidoh's sense of propriety wouldn't allow him to ask what the research was about, but under normal circumstances there was a good chance Inui would tell him anyway -- but he couldn't this time, not yet. "Is that what Momo was bothering you with?"

"Sort of," he muttered, staring at his knees.

Inui sat down on the bench and looked at Kaidoh curiously. He was sitting on the floor with his back to the lockers, now with his knees drawn up to his chest. A defensive posture if he'd ever seen one. Defensive. It was a good word to describe Kaidoh. Rarely he would drop some of his pretenses with Inui and talk to him -- about how he was worried about his grade in chemistry, how he didn't really _hate_ Momoshiro, how he couldn't help but be the slightest bit envious of Echizen... Things that wouldn't seem terribly uncommon or important to other people, but to Kaidoh, who kept nearly everything to himself -- and it was Inui who got to witness these breaks in character. He lacked a way to reliably predict when one of those moments would occur, but perhaps now would be one of those times.

Except the silence stretched on, until he couldn't stand not having the slightest hint about what his partner was thinking. "Kaidoh?"

"I won't let you avoid me today." The second year looked up at Inui, challenge glinting fiercely in his eyes.

"I hadn't planned on it." But what would happen if he did? It was an interesting thought.

"Good."

"Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Maybe." The real question was _would_ he talk? The distance Inui had put between them yesterday was more of a barrier than he had initially calculated, and he began to feel more than a little guilty. He tried to rationalize the guilt away by reminding himself that he had been trying to find out what had bothered Kaidoh so much in the first place, but he was unsuccessful. Replaying the events of the previous day, he found himself remembering Fuji asking if they'd fought, Oishi's concerned expression...

He and Kaidoh were not as close emotionally as Eiji and Oishi were, certainly, and their personalities did not have an abundance of similarities with the Golden Pair's. Still, the comparison wasn't necessarily flawed -- he and Kaidoh not speaking for an entire day was not unlike Oishi and Eiji avoiding each other, something that almost never happened. Inui could only recall six days in the last four years when the Golden Pair had been at odds with each other.

"I'm sorry," he heard himself say. He meant it, but he hadn't meant to say it. It got Kaidoh to look him in the eye again, though, so it was okay. "I was..." How to explain his actions? _Was_ there a way without affecting any results he could have derived from today's data?

"It's fine, senpai."

"Is it? I didn't mean for --"

"It's fine," Kaidoh repeated.

To test the honesty of Kaidoh's statement, Inui stood and offered his hand to his kouhai. "We should go."

"Aa." Kaidoh glanced to the left, the right, and then accepted the hand. Inui pulled him to his feet and smiled. Things were fine between them. It almost quelled his urge to seek out Momoshiro. Almost.

end chapter 2.

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	3. 3

Title: Measures of Time: Chapter 3 of 3  
Author: A.A. Incognito  
Pairing: InuKai  
Warnings: shounen ai  
Rating: PG  
Note: Timeline notes from first chapter still apply. Things eaten by Momo taken from the AO fansub of episode 27.  
Summary: Momo spills the beans, Hazue pretends he doesn't like Inui, and Kaidoh... is Kaidoh. But Inui gets it, this time.

**Measures of Time  
Chapter 3**

Momoshiro had never presented much of an enigma to Inui, even after the sophomore's natural instincts on the tennis court had been purposefully honed to near-perfection. With the right persuasion, getting information from Momo would be easy. Inui forewent his usual juice research and development during the lunch period to find him, armed with an array of foodstuffs he knew Momo particularly enjoyed. Unsurprisingly, Momo was in the first place Inui looked, and he dutifully followed him to a more secluded part of the room.

"Inui-senpai," Momo said between bites of melon bread, "what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Kaidoh." Being anything other than direct would get him precisely nowhere.

"What about the mamushi?"

Inui frowned. Even after all these years that nickname still annoyed Kaidoh enough to start throwing punches. It had reached the point where Inui was moderately less than fond of it, as well.

"What did you say to him this morning?" He passed Momo a can of blueberry juice. "I found him in the clubhouse."

"Uh."

Silence.

"...yes?"

"I, uh, shouldn't say. He'd kill me. Really kill me." He was looking anywhere but at Inui, thus erasing any doubts Inui had retained about the confrontation _not_ being about him.

"You don't need to reiterate it word for word. A general summary will do." Or so he hoped -- wording could be critical with Kaidoh.

"I could totally take the mamushi if he finds out I said something." ." Inui twitched as Momo continued. "But... I really can't say." Momo's fingers tapped a nervous rhythm on the desktop.

The food wasn't having quite the enticing effect Inui had hoped for. He sighed as he reached into his pocket. "I had hoped I wouldn't have to resort to this." He helped up a small, clear bottle, electric purple liquid sloshing within. "I haven't named this one yet, but the color is quite vivid."

"I-Inui juice?" Momo stammered, scooting his chair several feet away and getting puzzled looks from others in the room.

"Yes. I just finished this variation two days ago." He swirled the contents of the bottle around; the bubbles fizzed noisily. Momo had started to look for the nearest escape route, which Inui had intentionally positioned himself in front of. "You either get this," he shook the bottle, "or I could treat you to hamburgers after school." A small sacrifice for information. The expression on Momo's face indicated that the promise of more food could very well be the deciding factor in this confrontation.

"...can Echizen come?"

"I suppose." Fizz, fizz.

"All right, all right. Just... put the juice away." Inui did so, smirking at Momoshiro's blatant relief. "I was just teasing him about how you ignored him yesterday."

He'd already known that much. "That can't be all of it."

"It was! Almost. You gotta know he likes you. It's not hard to get him worked up about it. Not hard at all." Of course it wouldn't be, for Momo -- his thoughts screeched to a halt. Judging by the tone of voice the sophomore used when he said the word "like" there was only a 25 possibility that he was referring to their friendship. His mind began processing thoughts at a pace dangerous to his sanity. Like? Kaidoh liked him? Preposterous. Surely he would have noticed. Clearly this was just a tactic Momoshiro used to get a reaction out of Kaidoh.

"Oh?" he inquired, careful to keep his expression and voice neutral.

"He really is a freak, you know? He's liked you for a long time but he still gets mad when I mention it." Momo seemed more at ease now, in contrast to the chaos currently inhabiting Inui's ordinarily organized mind. Why had Momo presumed that he was aware of this information? How long was a "long time"? With Momo it could be anywhere from two days to years -- but there was still no chance that Kaidoh "liked" him like that. It was completely impossible.

...Well, not completely impossible. There were no absolutes in data.

"I don't remember exactly what I said, but that's the idea of it. Can I go now?"

"Yes." Inui watched as Momoshiro gathered up the remaining food. "Echizen is on the roof," he added. It had stopped raining.

"Uh, thanks." Then he was gone, probably off to buy a can of Ponta before trekking up the stairs to the roof.

Inui stared out the window, wondering what to do next. There was no conceivable way to disprove (or prove, chimed a small voice in the back of his mind) what Momo had said without some fairly awkward conversations. He briefly entertained the notion of observing various individuals who "liked" another individual and comparing their behavior with Kaidoh's, but discarded the idea. It would require an immense amount of data collection, which would take time, and Inui wanted an answer sooner than that. And Kaidoh didn't compare to others well.

The only person from whom he could obtain an accurate answer in a timely fashion was Kaidoh, but the potential risk associated with such an endeavor could far, far outweigh the benefits.

---

Inui's concern was increasing proportionally to the number of hamburger wrappers piled on the table between Momoshiro and Echizen. Momoshiro's eating habits were no secret, but he hadn't expected _quite_ this much. Then again, Inui had been having trouble concentrating all day, so there could have been an error in his estimation.

"Inui-senpai, are you gonna eat that?"

Wordlessly, Inui pushed his food over to the sophomore, and he and Echizen began squabbling over who got what. Momoshiro was in a cheerful mood, even though he had acquired an impressive bruise on his jaw sometime between lunch and afternoon practice. Echizen alternated between staring at Inui intently and teasing Momoshiro, teetering fearlessly on the line between acceptable behavior and outright rudeness.

The dynamic between the two younger boys was something Inui had always wanted more data on, but he couldn't bring himself to concentrate on their interaction at the present time. He was going to Kaidoh's after this little outing. He was going to talk to him. He was going to get to the bottom of everything. Or try to.

...As soon as Echizen and Momoshiro stopped eating.

Three hamburgers later, the two boys appeared to have finally reached their collective limit, and they parted ways, Inui's wallet considerably lighter than it had been upon entering the restaurant.

"Good luck, Inui-senpai," were Echizen's last words to him. Inui pretended not to have heard him.

When he reached Kaidoh's house, the Hazue answered the door. "Niisan just got back from his run," the younger boy said as he led Inui upstairs. "He'll be out of the shower soon. Come see my new models." Inui smiled slightly, feeling more grounded than he had since lunch. Hazue's behavior toward him was comfortingly constant. Normally very polite, sometimes rudely abrupt, and always with the grudging air of someone trying very hard to not like who they were talking to. Inui had witnessed it dozens of times on the courts.

Upstairs, Inui could faintly hear the sound of running water before Hazue grabbed his shirtsleeve and pulled him into the first bedroom at the top of the stairs -- Hazue's room -- and over to the one bookcase that held no books.

"Shall I tell you what shelves the new ones are on?" The younger boy asked slyly, glancing at Inui out of the corner of his eye.

"That is unnecessary."

It was a kind of game between the two of them. Hazue had forty-eight -- fifty-one now, a cursory glance told him -- models of various mecha, a collection he added to periodically. Kaidoh played tennis, Hazue built models and painted them. Inui had been taken aback the first time he'd seen them all.

He scanned each shelf with a critical eye, noting that Hazue had completely rearranged them all again, which made finding the new ones that much more difficult. Hazue, of course, did this on purpose.

The smirk on the younger boy's face faded a little when Inui pointed to the leftmost mecha on the second shelf. "That one is new." He received a reluctant nod. "And, hmm..." He studied the shelves carefully. Some of the models were obviously older, evidenced by a slightly less skillful paint job. None were dusty. But Hazue had a habit of putting his best and newest work in the most visible places, which was ultimately his downfall.

"That one," he decided, indicating a red mecha with large wings.

"I guess you can stay," Hazue almost grumbled, sounding remarkably like his brother. And that was Inui's reward -- reluctant approval of his visit.

"There you are," came a voice from the doorway. "You found them?"

"Yes," Inui said, straightening. Kaidoh was wearing gray shorts and a black tank top, towel draped around his neck. His hair was still wet, and curling the tiniest bit at the ends.

"'Kaasan said dinner would be in twenty minutes," Hazue told his brother, distinctly unruffled by his sudden appearance. "Inui-senpai is invited, as well." That was something he had picked up from Kaidoh, somewhere along the way. Inui found it amusing.

"All right," Kaidoh replied. "We'll be down then." Then he turned around and walked down the hall to his room, not looking back, just expecting Inui to follow. Which he did, with a little wave to Hazue, who actually smiled faintly in return.

Walking down the familiar hallway after Kaidoh sent his thoughts circling each other again until he firmly shoved them aside. He would stay calm, there was no reason to be nervous. It was still _Kaidoh_, even if Momoshiro had meant what Inui thought there was a 75 chance of him meaning. Still Kaidoh.

In Kaidoh's room, Inui took his customary seat at the foot of the bed, watching his kouhai vigorously dry his hair with the towel. A thought wormed its way through his defenses -- just when _had_ Kaidoh started acting like finding Inui in his house was a normal occurrence? It was, but Kaidoh had always seemed just a little taken aback by it, before... before when?

Approximately one year, seven months, and four days ago, his mind supplied. Inui could recall an incident where Kaidoh had walked into the living room and found Inui and Hazue talking about the nutritional values of giant water beetles, and had calmly sat down and asked if Inui planned on making insect-based juices. (At the time he hadn't had the heart to tell him that he had already developed several insect-based variations.) Inui and Hazue had unintentionally shared a slightly confused look at Kaidoh's behavior, and it was then Inui knew he had found a comrade, however unwilling, in the quest to Figure Kaidoh Out.

Now he wished he had thought to attempt to glean information from Hazue when he had had the chance. Not that Kaidoh's brother would have given up anything willingly, but with more time Inui surely could have gotten _some_ data. Anything would be helpful now, as he lacked even a vague idea about how to go about this. Whatever "this" was.

"Senpai?" Kaidoh was looking at him, hair ruffled from the towel.

"Yes?"

"You're quiet."

"Ah, sorry. I was thinking."

"You need silence to think?" He smoothed down his hair and tossed the towel into a basket in the corner of the room before sitting down on the bed, back against the wall in order to face Inui. There was a 50 chance that the question was genuine, and an equal chance that Kaidoh was... teasing him. _Was_ Kaidoh teasing him? He studied the younger boy's expression carefully -- one eyebrow slightly raised, mouth turned up bare millimeters at the corners. Perhaps the question itself was half-serious, half-teasing.

"No," he answered. "There is a situation I would like to resolve, but I cannot determine an appropriate course of action."

"Situation? Is that why you were avoiding me?"

And there were times when Inui wished Kaidoh weren't quite so direct. Those times usually coincided with the ones where he wished he could lie to his partner without feeling immensely guilty, but he couldn't, so... "Yes."

"Oh." Kaidoh shifted on the bed, drawing one knee up to his chest: a sure sign that yesterday was still bothering him, consciously or not, no matter what he'd said that morning. It wasn't like Kaidoh to dwell on things, unless they involved a grudge with Momoshiro. "Are you here to collect more data?"

"Of a sort." Kaidoh looked up at Inui's answer, eyes meeting Inui's. Inui looked away first, then continued, "I like being here. Eighty-eight percent of the time that is the only reason I come."

"Why?"

"You're full of questions today." Perhaps Inui could find answers in Kaidoh's questions.

"Are you going to answer?"

"You were inquiring why I like being here?" A barely perceptible nod. "You're here," he said simply, and it was true. What other options were there? Though Kaidoh's mother's cooking was excellent, something of that caliber could hardly qualify as an explanation for the time Inui spent at his kouhai's home.

Hm, there was the 10 pink tinge again. "Did you expect a different answer?"

"I... Momoshiro already told me what happened at lunch."

"That would explain the bruise, I assume." This made for an interesting turn of events, and took care of his inability to determine what course of action to take. "I deserve to be punched, then, since I forced him to tell me."

"But you already knew," Kaidoh muttered, the resignation in his voice causing Inui's chest to constrict almost painfully.

"I did not," he said softly.

"Y-you didn't?" Twenty percent color shift and rising at a steady rate.

"That is correct."

"And you -- is _that_ why you came over?" Kaidoh stood abruptly, Inui could sense that he was trying to pull his anger around him like a shield. Inui stood too, reaching out to touch Kaidoh's shoulder. He would not let this damage their relationship. Kaidoh jerked away from Inui's hand, but remained otherwise motionless.

"Kaidoh..."

"Is it?" he demanded, still with his back to Inui.

"Yes. But... only because I wanted it to be true." And he had, regardless of the miniscule probability that it _was_ true. He had long since trained himself to ignore things that had such low chances of actually occurring; he wouldn't be able to focus on anything if he gave each possibility equal attention. Tentatively, Inui placed his hand on his partner's shoulder once more, and Kaidoh did not refuse the contact.

Kaidoh slanted a glance back at Inui, suspicious. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No, Kaidoh," he gave his shoulder a light squeeze, "I'm not."

The younger boy turned so that they were facing each other, less than an arm's length apart. "I thought you knew," he repeated.

Inui should have known. The training, the talking, just sitting together -- he was the only one Kaidoh willingly let into his personal space on a regular basis without violence being involved. The incident two days ago _should_ have been the final evidence he needed to draw an accurate conclusion about the nature of their association. But he was no expert in relationships off the courts, obviously. "Not until Momo said it. You should apologize for punching him."

"No," Kaidoh said with a scowl. "He still deserved it."

Inui smiled and adjusted his hold on Kaidoh to grip both of his shoulders to minimize the risk that he would attempt an escape. Inui was centimeters away when Kaidoh put a hand on his chest, exerting a small amount of pressure that Inui was too distracted to calculate. "Wait." The hand left his chest and rose to carefully remove his glasses and set them on the desk. Inui blinked, and then Kaidoh closed the gap and kissed him.

When he pulled back, Inui noted that the color of his cheeks had faded back into the 10 range, and that his own were probably near the same level. Kaidoh's hand rose again and his fingertips brushed the skin near Inui's uncovered eyes. He decided the light touch was Kaidoh's way of saying he liked Inui without his glasses, since he would never say such a thing aloud. Inui reached up to take hold of Kaidoh's wrist, then pressed a kiss to his palm on impulse. Back up to 20.

"Senpai--" Inui cut him off with another kiss and concluded he rather liked kissing Kaidoh; it would certainly be a pleasant addition to their interaction.

When Inui finally gave him the opportunity, Kaidoh asked, "This doesn't change anything, does it?"

"Not the most important parts," Inui responded, then grinned, which had an interesting effect on Kaidoh when he wasn't wearing his glasses. "But I'm 100 positive it will change some things."

He had just leaned to Kaidoh again when the door to the room slid open without warning. Kaidoh tried to jump back, which threw Inui off-balance and they ended up more tangled together than before, somehow managing to stay upright.

"Ah, finally. 'Kaasan sent me to tell you dinner is ready."

Inui couldn't hide another grin as Kaidoh turned approximately five shades of red, which he was close enough to see even without his glasses. Neither pulled away once they had regained their balance.

"Don't you know how to knock?" Kaidoh asked gruffly as he snatched the glasses off the desk and put them back on Inui. With a smirk, Inui reached up and adjusted them a little. Interesting reaction. Quite swift.

Hazue raised an eyebrow. "I did."

Two more shades of red. "Oh."

"Perhaps you should start locking your door when Inui-senpai comes over."

"Perhaps," Inui agreed when it appeared as though Kaidoh was incapable of answering. Kaidoh made a choked sort of noise at the response and his hand clenched around a fistful of Inui's shirt.

"I'll tell them you'll be down soon," Hazue said and left, closing the door behind him.

Inui leaned down to kiss Kaidoh once more for good measure and was surprised at the speed of his response. "We'll have time," he said softly when they separated. Kaidoh understood what he was trying to say, and nodded before pulling away.

Inui wordlessly followed Kaidoh downstairs to the kitchen, his gaze straying to his kouhai countless times during the meal. Once he caught Kaidoh looking back at him, and he smiled. Kaidoh averted his gaze to his plate for a few long moments before looking up and smiling back.

Yes, there would be plenty of time.

end.

I hope my first multi-part InuKai fic was okay. :)


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